To:THE EDITOR OFZVEZDA

Written:Written on April 22, 1912Published:First published in 1923 in the bookIz epokhi “Zvezdy” i “Pravdy” (1911–14), Part III.

      Sent from Paris to St. Petersburg.

      Printed from the typewritten copy found in police records.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      pages36-37.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

DearColleague,

Iam sending new material today for theVoter’s Handbook.
This is nearly all, there will be another article or two from
here in two days’ time, and then you will get an article
on the budget from Tver.

(1)Ivery much advise you also to reprint fromZvezdaNo. 34 (December 17, 1911) the article by Frey: “The Role
of Worker Electors in the Election Campaign” (it would
also be a good thing to reprint his article in No. 36,
December 31, 1911, about the role of peasant
electors,[1]as well).
Don’t go out of your way to cut them down. It is better to
publish in full a substantial article which will be of value
in giving intelligible guidance for the elections. Don’t go
out of your way for cheapness and brevity—better publish
something solid.

If,after all, it is absolutely impossible to publish all
the articles, be certain to return those you don’t.

(2)Hereit is most essential to make arrangements for
regular correspondence. Let your secretary write to me
direct here, and not through Arcachon, to avoid any delay.
Give us a better address for letters to you.

(3)Youare wrong not to reply to the liquidators. This
is a great mistake. You can and should reply, without
saying a word about the Conference. You should print a
brief reply to every lie ofZhivoye Dyelo:Zhivoye Dyeloin such-and-such a number is lying, as all the liquidators
do. It is essential to reply, otherwise you lose.

(4)IfPlekhanov writes, you should send his articles
here in proofs. Otherwise it becomes a “privilege” for him,
which we cannot tolerate. Be careful. You will force us to
leave if Plekhanov is given the privilege of writing against
the Conference when we cannot write in favour of it. It
would be a mean trick to allow him to abuse it when we
cannot praise it.

(5)Besure to send us in a separate packet, wrapped up
inNovoye
Vremya,[2]these numbers ofZvezda: Nos. 24
and 25 of the summer of 1911, No. 18 (54), No. 19 (55),
No. 22 (58), No. 23 (59)—we haven’t got them—andZhivoye DyeloNo. 11 and No. 12. Please send us confiscated
issues separately, wrapping them up in newspapers of the
Right.

(6)Letus know as soon as possible about the daily
paper.[3]What will be the size? What length of article
can be sent?

(7)Tryand buy as cheaply as possible the Verbatim
Reports of the Third Duma, especially the sessions of
1911–12. Write.

[1]Seepresent edition, Vol. 17, pp. 372–84.—Ed.

[2]NovoyeVremya(New Times)—daily newspaper published in St. 
Petersburg from 1868 to 1917. At first moderate-liberal in tone, it
became an organ of reactionaryaristrocratic=

circles and
officialdom after it was taken over by A. S. Suvorin in 1876. From 1905
onwards it was an organ of the Black Hundreds. It was closed down
by the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Petrograd Soviet
on October 26 (November 8), 1917.

[3]Leninrefers to the Bolshevik legal daily paperPravdathat was
being prepared for publication.